Saturday, August 31, 2013

I (Joy Johnston, aka villagemidwife - see note at the end of this post) often say to women in my care, "I need to trust you, and you need to trust me."

This sounds reasonable to me, particularly within the context of primary maternity care that spans the pre-, intra- and postnatal periods. While midwifery is not rocket science, the commitment a woman and her family make to a new baby is perhaps the most far-reaching investment they will ever make. Trust is something to value: it's not lightly given; it's not easily won; and once won it can be lost. I can not assume that a woman in my care is trusting me, and she may not know if I am trusting her. This is the case especially when difficult decisions need to be made: when I am asking the woman to trust my professional judgment and advice in order to protect the wellbeing of the mother or child.

According to contemporary thinking, midwives and women engage in a partnership that is based on reciprocity and trust (a phrase coined, as far as I know, by sociologist-academic Karen Lane.) It's a two-way relationship. It's a relationship that builds over time, and is tried and potentially strengthened as each woman and her midwife navigate the unique terrain that each pregnancy-birthing episode offers.

Partnership should not be seen as an idealistic notion: the current internationally accepted definition of the midwife includes:

... The midwife is recognised as a responsible and accountable professional who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, to conduct births on the midwife’s own responsibility and to provide care for the newborn and the infant.... (International Confederation of Midwives)

The stark reality of life is that some people find it difficult to trust anyone, while others give away their trust lightly to anyone who sounds as though they know what they are talking about. Most people fit somewhere between the two extremes. The definition of the midwife is looking at the big picture, while the experience many women have with a midwife or midwives may be far removed from any sense of working in partnership. Similarly, midwives who provide continuity for their own caseload of women may find themselves in situations in which the sense of partnership is sub-optimal.

A young midwife told me she felt that a woman in her care does not trust her because she has had only a few years' midwifery experience. A couple of comments that the woman made left the midwife wondering if she was able to continue as midwife.

That discussion prompted me to think a lot about what it means to trust, and the importance of trust in midwifery - in the processes of decision-making that a midwife uses.

I do not, ultimately, trust birth. Birth, like any other part of life, is able to be complicated by disease and corruption. The midwife's role in maternity care is to firstly work in harmony with awesome natural processes, and secondly to recognise complication and intervene to prevent loss of life or damage. If I trusted birth there would be no need to work as a midwife. I would simply accept 'Que sera sera' (what will be will be).

I have reflected on the many women for whom I have provided midwifery services over the years, and wondered if my statement, "I need to trust you, and you need to trust me" is true.

Many women have gone through the birthing process with minimal intrusion or action by me: my job is to be 'with woman': to watch and occasionally give support, then fill out the paperwork. In almost all of these cases there has been, I believe, a working partnership based on reciprocity and trust. The woman who is trusting her midwife is able to surrender to the work of her body when the time comes.

Some women have needed more than I have been able to give them in community based midwifery care, and we have transferred care to a hospital maternity service. I expect that in some of these situations the woman's ability to trust me as her midwife, or to trust herself as the birth-giver, has been less than optimal. In some, my ability to trust myself as midwife, or the woman as the birth-giver has been compromised. At times I may have been too weary, or emotionally drained, or fearful, or ...

Spring 2013

Tomorrow is the official start of Spring in the southern hemisphere. It's exciting to see the tender young leaves on deciduous trees, and flowers on the fruit trees.

Spring 2013: Bonsai Japanese Maple and azalea

The signs of new life are within the natural processes that offer endless wonder and thrill to those who are ready to see.

Midwifery has taught me to respect and work in harmony with the natural processes as much as is possible.

These little bonsai trees have been in my care for several years.

postscript...Don't believe everything you see on the internet!
I began today with "I (Joy Johnston, aka villagemidwife...)" because, for some reason Blogger (the program I use to write this and other blogs) thinks I have changed my name.
Probably my own fault - I told my sister I would help her get started writing a blog, and somehow Blogger now thinks that I am my sister - Barbara Clark. Everything I have written is now attributed to her, so I need to either find out how to get into my blogger profile and change my 'name', or get used to writing under a pseudonym. I have followed the instructions to go to Blogger profile, but keep getting a message "oops that didn't go well"!

I'm just venting, but if you have a suggestion for fixing it, I'm keen to get it sorted out! XXjoy

I have read many of these comments with interest; and am surprised at the lack of comment from midwives. We are the one profession that has more ability to protect, promote and support breastfeeding than any other - simply because we are with woman at the incredibly critical times for breastfeeding: the birth, the hours after the birth, and the early days. If breastfeeding works for both mother and baby in the first week of life, most of the problems have been sorted.

If, on the other hand, after a couple of sleepless nights and days, both mother and baby exhausted and crying, the mother's nipples bleeding and incredibly painful, and someone tells her that her baby should have some formula because her baby will lose too much weight, and she should express her milk until her nipples heal ... It's all uphill, isn't it?

These discussions - they are all there for you to read, and come to your own conclusions. I will make a few observations.

Having read the IQ article, and a quick succession of responses that questioned everything from the validity of the research conclusions, to the value of breastfeeding, I wrote:

There are many compelling reasons today for health professionals to
promote, protect and support breastfeeding. We have a duty of care to
do no harm. Promoting breastfeeding is, to my mind, a no-brainer. (and I
don't really care if my IQ would have been higher if my mother had
breastfed me longer)

Almost everyone in our society accepts that 'breast is best' for babies and their mothers.
The dilemma that midwives face in the brief period of birth and
postnatal care in which we are directly responsible for mother and baby
is that breastfeeding can be easily disrupted. Midwives, more than any
other group of health professionals, can work with mothers and babies in
through those early days, and guide and encourage mothers when the
going gets tough.

When hospital maternity units work towards becoming 'Baby Friendly',
implementing the BFHI global criteria, one of the most challenging steps
is to demonstrate that a sufficient proportion of healthy breastfed
babies were exclusively breast fed or breast milk fed from birth to
discharge from the unit.

Mother-baby pairs who have used formula supplements, or milk from
another mother, can be supported in optimising their reliance on
mother's own milk, at the same time as being realistic about their
particular situation.

Breastfeeding is one of life's big challenges. If it weren't so good, it probably would not be so contested.

Many of those who posted comments supportive of breastfeeding were challenged by a doctor who claimed, repeatedly, that there was little difference between the health of breastfed and formula fed babies in our (wealthy) society, which has clean water and enough money to purchase formula. For example:

why are you so resistant to discussion of what the data actually show
about the effects of feeding type in our society? Is it because it
threatens your ideology? And what, exactly, do you consider the ''risks
of formula'' to be (in our wealthy society)?
Families should be encouraged to choose breast feeding and, if they
choose it, the mother should be assisted to make it work - so long as
the harms of continuing do not become greater than the benefts.

The self-appointed jury panel in this case included mothers, retired persons, university lecturers, a public hospital clinician, a PhD candidate, and others. The strength and frequency of comment from one leader set the rules. Nothing was protected, other than mothers who did not breastfeed. How dare anyone make a connection between the harmful effects of smoking, and the (supposed) harmful effects of not breastfeeding (in a wealthy society)!

A point that I want to record in this context is that no matter how 'wealthy' our society is, no matter how difficult it is to demonstrate through research an advantage for a breastfed child over the non-breastfed child, breast feeding is the biological norm. No technology or man-made substance has, or will, be developed to replace that norm. Anything that is developed as a replacement for a mother's own milk, delivered directly to her suckling infant, can only be an inferior substance.

Another point that is clear to me is that, if it is truly dangerous (as we know it is) for a baby in the developing world to be denied his or her mother's milk, the onus is on us, the developed/wealthy world, to set the standard. Statements that trivialise the life-giving properties of breastmilk in the wealthy world have overtones of colonialism and racism. Australia is not uniformly wealthy. Disadvantaged groups of people in Australia today have lower rates of breastfeeding than those in the better postcodes, and poorer health outcomes for babies as well as other age groups.

Here's a true story: A woman who came to Australia with her husband on a 457 work visa told me, with tears, of the birth of their first baby. He had been born in a hospital in India, was healthy and hungry, and she was shown how to give him formula in a bottle. She did not receive assistance with breastfeeding, which she tried, unsuccessfully, to initiate. By the time he was three weeks of age he was refusing the breast, and essentially fully bottle fed. He died at one month of age. She asked me to help her give birth to her new baby, and breastfeed him - which she did.

This brings me to the second article, headed 'Nipple Nazis'.

Again the correlation between social attitudes towards smoking, and not breastfeeding, was drawn. Again, the cry from the stalls: how dare you! That's not allowed!

It is true that the quantum of harm is greater with smoking than with not breast feeding. But the harm of smoking is (usually) to the adult who smokes. Even if there is only a small amount of harm with not breastfeeding - especially for premature babies who develop necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) and need surgery to remove large portions of dead bowel tissue, and for babies in poorer communities, and for those who receive contaminated feeds when someone in the big business making the formula makes a mistake ... surely the onus is on the midwives, and the health system, to do all it can to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. The baby is the innocent recipient of whatever the mother chooses to feed him or her. I reject any notion that a wealthy society can accept a standard that would put poorer people groups at an increased risk of harm.

So, dear reader, why are we looking at offensive headings such as 'Nipple Nazis', when considering breastfeeding? Who is a 'Nipple Nazi'? The term has been used in maternity and child health services for the midwives, nurses, lactation consultants, and doctors, who seek to promote, protect and support breastfeeding. How is it that the thought police have not stamped out that outrageous and offensive suggestion? What is it about the work that we do that has ANY relation at all to that horrible and inhumane blot on history?

It seems to me that while our society - at least that section of it who reads the health section of The Conversation - is very protective of the feelings of any mother who finds herself unable to, or chooses to not breast feed for whatever reason - we don't see anything wrong with the implied derision of those who make it their business to work in harmony with the natural processes in breastfeeding.

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Retired from clinical practice

I have retired. Joy JohnstonMobile: 0411190448

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About me

I have been a midwife since 1973, and have practised independently, attending births in homes since 1993.

My four children, born after I qualified as a midwife, taught me that the medical model of care was not suitable for a well woman. The first three, born in a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, taught me that I could push boundaries. The fourth, born at a birth centre in Melbourne Australia, opened up new possibilities, and new philosophies. The babies themselves taught me about birthing and breastfeeding. My first grand-daughter, born into my hands, has brought to my life and loving a wonderful new dimension. The birth of each subsequent grand-child has been a precious time for me.

I learn more from every woman who takes me into her life for the birth of her child. I learn more from each wonderful baby as she or he enters our world.

It is not easy to practise as an independent midwife in Melbourne. Women do not, as a rule, question the care that is available through our health system. Women giving birth are usually submissive to the dominant medical system. Options are not well understood, and not widely available.

Women who choose midwife care are discriminated against financially. Whereas free hospitalisation and subsidised visits to the doctor are available to all, care by a known midwife is usually expensive, except in isolated public hospital programs.

In recent years I have been less able to ignore ageing, and I have realised that I need to write my stories, and share my professional knowledge so that it is not lost when I am no longer able to practise.

Thankyou for visiting my blog. I hope you will find it informative and useful. Please leave a comment or contact me joy@aitex.com.au